


Regret

by PoisonJack



Series: FebuWhump 2021; star wars; borderlands fills [1]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Armitage Hux Needs A Hug, Assassination attempts, Exes, General au, M/M, Mind Control, Past Relationship(s), Post-TLJ, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren, Whump, blaster wounds, cautiously optimistic ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-02
Updated: 2021-02-02
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:01:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,948
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29164632
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PoisonJack/pseuds/PoisonJack
Summary: Hux is force-compelled to try and assassinate Kylo with a blaster. Kylo lets him take the shot.This is for day 1 ofFebuWhumpover on tumblr :) The prompt was 'mind control'
Relationships: Armitage Hux/Kylo Ren, Kylux
Series: FebuWhump 2021; star wars; borderlands fills [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2140923
Comments: 12
Kudos: 102





	Regret

**Author's Note:**

> I plan to ultimately round up the fills for FebuWhump for later posting here to ao3, but since I'm already a day late i'm posting this one here :D Other fills will be on my tumblr (linked in bottom notes) if you're interested in keeping up ;D All fills will be on ao3 by the beginning of March tho so eeeeeey :D

He raises the blaster to fire, but Ren already has him pinned in place by the force. 

The assassination attempt isn’t entirely a surprise, but the immediate sting of hurt accompanying it certainly is. Kylo knew Hux was bitter-- downright _hated_ him after he’d used the force on him after killing Snoke; _both_ times- but Ren had always assumed that what they’d had had been _more_. 

Yes, their relationship had soured to the point where the memory of desperate kisses and passionate embraces now seems like impossible fantasy, but Ren never thought Hux hated him so much to want to make an actual attempt on his life.

And that’s _definitely_ what this is.

It hurts Ren more than he’s willing to admit, and the fact that Hux _isn’t_ already dead for the attempt tells Kylo a lot more about himself than he’d been aware.

Hux doesn’t fight against the force that has him frozen in place, though. He doesn’t struggle, doesn’t sneer, the unemotional, business-like single-mindedness to move his finger and pull the trigger on the gun his only concern.

It’s _part_ of what stops Ren from murderously lashing out; the uncharacteristic placidness to the assassination attempt. Had Hux gone so cold from him? He’s so _detached_ from the action, even considering their past and what they’d once had. 

It’s like a slap to Ren's face. 

Some part of him is consumed with an ache beyond soothing; a thing that _still_ craves Hux’s love and attention, wanting to protect and cherish the man even as Hux’s finger _still_ itches to pull the trigger. He can feel it now, the intensity with which Hux wants to shoot him, but nothing else below the surface. 

Ren frees Hux’s mouth; frees him enough to speak-- defend his actions, vent his spleen, rage or coldly tell him he deserves it- but no words come.

Hux doesn’t speak. The look in his green eyes is intense, but vacant. He’s still focused on the goal of pulling the trigger, his entire being trying in vain against Ren’s force-hold. It’s all he wants; all he needs.

No, Hux might be doing this, but this _wasn’t_ Hux. 

“...Hux.” Ren doesn’t want to kill him for this. He doesn't want to hurt him, either. Even right now, blaster in hand aimed his way, Ren doesn’t want to hurt him. He still wishes he’d never hurt Hux in the _first_ place, but Crait had been the last nail in the coffin, and after that, anything between them had fully withered and died. He’d foolishly allowed it to happen, regretting the distance between them now.

Ren doesn’t bother asking, using the force to enter Hux’s mind to understand what is happening. A deeper dive beneath the general’s one-train track of thoughts finds a compulsion planted firmly in Hux’s brain: _shoot Kylo Ren._ _Shoot him. Shoot him. Must shoot him. Pull the trigger_. _Shoot him._

Whoever manipulated the general’s mind to try and carry out this assassination attempt must not have been aware that Ren can easily stop blaster bolts in midair. They must have counted on Hux having special proximity to the Supreme Leader. The element of surprise might’ve worked otherwise, but whoever did it clearly didn’t know that Hux hasn’t shared his bed in _months_. 

“Hux…” Ren puts both gloved hands on either side of the other man’s face. He brushes thumbs over his cheeks, but there’s no recognition in his eyes aside from the desire to fire his weapon at his target. It’s his sole purpose at the moment; something Ren needs to snuff it out.

That’s easier said than done, though.

The compulsion to kill Ren is woven deeper into Hux’s mind than he feels safe simply ripping from the man’s head; the desire to shoot him is wrapped up in Hux’s own cognizance of _anything_ Kylo Ren. Should he simply destroy it, he could destroy anything good Hux _ever_ associated with him. ...or even erase himself completely from the general's mind.

It’s a much more complex problem than Ren at first assumed.

“Hux… _Hux_ , I know you’re in there,” Ren growls, but his words fall on deaf ears. He tries to use the force in the man’s mind to snap him out of it and spark some recognition to wake him up from the drive compelling him, but the strain of such a thing has a visible result.

Hux’s nose begins to bleed and his heart rate skyrockets. A migraine pulses in the general’s head, and Hux is consciously _numb_ to it all; to anything _not_ devoted to putting a bolt in the Supreme Leader. The drive to shoot Ren is too important. Hux would accomplish his task at the cost of himself if he had to-- that’s the message here- and Ren realizes that this is far more dangerous than assumed. Someone _was_ going to die, but it wasn’t going to be him, and it wasn’t going to be Hux.

Ren decides to let him pull the trigger.

The bolt goes wide and strikes the durasteel wall. Hux immediately fires another as Ren easily diverts it as well, listening in to the other man’s mind; he’s still noticeably absent. The end goal is not to fire the blaster, after all, but to _shoot_ Ren. Not doing so when Ren is _right there_ is punishing his body for noncompliance. 

Ren makes another stupid choice, but it’s the obvious, simple one to make.

As Hux’s next shot finds its mark and hits home, Ren shouts at the pain-- it hurts less than a bowcaster, certainly, but it’s still a blaster set to _kill_ impacting scar tissue- gripping his side with a snarl as he lets his force-hold on Hux go.

The gun clatters to the floor as Hux seems to wake up just as Ren had hoped. He’s blinking, touching at his face, visibly disoriented and confused. He wipes beneath his nose, seeing the glistening red of blood on the black synth leather of his glove. He’s next staring at the blaster he’s just dropped with something akin to dawning horror, like recognition from within a dream. Then his attention is finally drawn to Kylo.

Blood leaves Hux’s already pale face stark white, and makes the smear below his nose that much more brilliant. Ren doesn’t just hear the other man’s thoughts, but he can _feel_ them too, flooding in in tumult after the vacancy that previously occupied his mind.

Fright. Worry. Shock. Concern. _Fear._ Hux doesn’t know how he got here or what he’s doing here, but he realizes what he’s apparently _done_ , and knows that there’s no explaining it; no excuse he could possibly give to save himself.

That Hux genuinely thinks Ren will kill him-- wonders why he’s still _alive_ \- makes the self-appointed Supreme Leader growl in his throat.

“I _let_ you shoot me,” Ren says pointedly, still standing but hunched over himself where he’d been hit in the side. He considers sitting back where he’d been meditating when Hux came in. “...Are you awake now?”

Hux is still rooted to the spot, mind spinning with concern for himself, concern for Ren, _disbelief_ that this was even happening, and disbelief that he’s still alive. “ _Supreme Leader, I—!”_

“ _Hux._ ” It’s both an expression of annoyance _and_ pain. Not pain over the shot in his side-- he’s definitely had worse- but the distance between them has never been felt so keenly before, and he _understands_ just how much of a betrayal his actions over Crait had been to the other man. He doesn’t like the look on Hux’s face-- afraid of _him_ and what he might do over what is clearly a failed assassination attempt regardless of reason. He doesn’t want Hux’s fear; he wants to reassure him, soothe him that it’s not his fault.

He’d also _really_ like the burn of the bolt to stop throbbing in his skin, and maybe some bacta to soothe _that._ The pain serves him no purpose; he doesn’t want to fight with Hux.

Hux’s voice is cautious, standing there looking between Kylo’s face and the blaster wound to the man’s side. “...I swear I don’t know how I came to be here, Ren...”

“I know.”

There’s a few moments of silence then, punctuated by Ren’s heavy breathing and the beat of Hux’s heart in his own ears. “...You _let_ me _shoot_ you…?”

Hux’s eyes linger on the wound Ren has a gloved hand over. Ren isn’t sure what to make of the look on Hux's face. He can feel the other man’s mental walls going up, and he doesn’t push against it, withdrawing from Hux’s mind instead.

Ren decides to lean on his ‘throne’ of a huge chair he’d been meditating in when Hux had first entered. The wound still hurts, but the way he’s leaned is better. “It was either that, or kill you. I have no desire to kill you, Hux. That wasn’t you, besides.”

Hux’s eyes dart to Ren’s own, back once to his injury, and then back to his face. “Ren…”

“A force-user has had access to you somehow…” Ren grimaces as his side twinges painfully. Hux makes an abortive move like he wanted to move towards Kylo, but doesn’t. “One of considerable skill. Security footage will need to be reviewed.”

Hux nods slowly in agreement with that same look on his face; wonder that he wasn’t being strangled to death or cut down with Ren’s lightsaber. He’d been _compromised_ , _used_ by the enemy somehow-- maybe this was even an attempt on _his_ life via Kylo Ren as executioner’s tool- but it would be a lie to say his only worry is what the Supreme Leader might do to him for the fact.

At present it’s not even Hux’s most distressing concern, which is a tell all its own.

“...Ren, may I see that?”

Ren looks up, his heart clenching in wistful longing for the look on Hux’s face. With anyone else it might be a ploy; an attempt to get closer to _finish_ the job. But he _knows_ that look. He nods, and Hux comes close.

Inspecting the wound carefully, eyeing his own marksmanship, Hux frowns. Had it been a slightly different angle, it might’ve hit his heart. He wonders if Ren had diverted the shot to something less-lethal. He _hopes_ the man had had that much sense before letting Hux put a damn _blaster bolt_ in him. “...I’m sorry, Ren.”

“No, I’m sorry.” 

The way Hux touches him tentatively at first makes Ren’s throat tighten. He knows that Hux is talking about the _wound_ , but _his_ mind is full of so much more, and all of his personal offenses against the other man. He wants to apologize for all of it-- something he never did- but he doesn’t even know how to start.

Not a day passes that Ren wishes he could take back what happened at Crait. He’s never regretted anything more than how he treated Hux, and how it utterly _destroyed_ them. How he’d taken these kinds of touches as a given in the past; how wistful it makes him now, and lonelier for it.

Hux is skilled at battlefield aid, and the wound is already cauterized from the bolt. Ren’s in no immediate danger, but he gladly lets the general tend to him before Hux says they need to call a med-droid; he _definitely_ needs bacta. Ren agrees, but lets Hux bandage him in the mean time.

This is the first time Hux has touched him since Crait, and his hands are just as gentle on him as ever.

Ren doesn’t ask Hux to leave when the med-droid arrives. 

Hux stands by his side, and doesn’t ask to go.

**Author's Note:**

> AND THEN THEY WORK EVERYTHING OUT AND ITS HAPPILY EVER AFTER DAMMIT D:< hahaha :D i live for comments! :3
> 
> [my star wars tumblr](http://go-hux-yourself.tumblr.com/) | [my fic archive masterlist](https://go-hux-yourself.tumblr.com/post/187723542337/poisonjack-ao3-fic-archive)| [my twitter](https://twitter.com/PurgeThatUrge)
> 
> Please leave kudos and a comment if you enjoyed! ao3 FAQ: [Can I post comments anonymously, or if I don't have an Archive account? ](https://archiveofourown.org/faq/comments-and-kudos?language_id=en#anoncomment)


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